ESSAY TOPICS
FOR
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT


As you are reading, please keep these questions in mind:

1. What concepts of Law are prominent in CRIME AND PUNISHMENT? What new legal techniques and psychological methods does Porfiry employ?

2. What concepts of Christianity are prominent in CRIME AND PUNISHMENT? Why does Raskonikov ask Sonya to read the story of Lazarus to him?

3. Discuss the theories by which Raskolnikov considers himself to be an extraordinary man? Why, ultimately, is he not an extraordinary man?

4. What are the Hegelian theory, the Utilitarian theory, and the "Ubermensch" theory and how do these theories figure in the story of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT? Give at least two examples in which these theories are discussed or used in the plot.

5. How might Raskolnikov answer the objection that his theory is only an attmept to justify unrestrained self-will?

6. How is Svidrigaylov shown to represent one aspect of Raskolnikov's character? What repulses Raskolnikov the most about the man?

7. What attracts Raskolnikov, the intellectual, to the simple and uneducated Sonya?

8. Why does Svidrigaylov commit suicide?

9. How do dreams and bouts of delirium function in the novel? Remember Raskolnikov is not the only one to have these deliriums. When do they occur?

10. Why does Dostoevsky not have Raskolnikov commit suicide as the writer had originally planned? Which ending would be or is the more satisfying - Raskolnikov committing suicide or experiencing redemption through Christian love and the love of a good woman?

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